Description: The the long, strapless dress that Julia Roberts wore in the 1990 film “Pretty Woman,” in a moment of pure, movie-magic apotheosis is back on broadway at the Nederlander Theater as “Pretty Woman” the musical. A facsimile of that red dress — and of many of the other outfits worn by Ms. Roberts, including her skimpy hooker clothes — show up in “Pretty Woman: The Musical,” which lowers the already ground-scraping bar for literal-minded adaptations of film to stage. And once again Edward starts to hand Vivian the jewelry box and then abruptly opens and closes it. This time, Vivian (Samantha Barks) giggles halfheartedly, as if she were a little embarrassed. Edward (Andy Karl), too, seems slightly sheepish. Well, why wouldn’t they feel that way? Directed and choreographed as if on automatic pilot by Jerry Mitchell, “Pretty Woman: The Musical” has a book by the original film’s director, Garry Marshall (who died in 2016), and screenwriter, J.F. Lawton, with songs by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. Its creators have hewed suffocatingly close to the film’s story, gags and dialogue. A seemingly soulless Wall Street takeover king picks up a young hooker on Hollywood Boulevard and pays her $3,000 to be his companion, on social occasions as well as in the hotel suite, for a week. He introduces her to fine dining, fancy clothes, discreet makeup and the opera, while she transforms him from a cold fish into a free spirit. The New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote that the film “manages to be giddy, lighthearted escapism much of the time,” but she also noted a classically 1980s spirit of materialistic “covetousness and an underlying misogyny.” Yet even committed feminists I know have a soft spot for “Pretty Woman,” and I suspect the principal, if not the sole, reason is Ms. Roberts. In her early 20s and previously a supporting actress of electric presence, Ms. Roberts unsheathed her full, unsullied radiance here, and it cast a cosmetic glow on everything around her. Instead of retailoring Vivian to Ms. Barks’s specific talents, the creative team has chosen to play up the narrative’s twinkly fairy-tale aspects, which can be summed up in the lyric, “If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?” This prescription is delivered by a character called (I swear) Happy Man (Eric Anderson), who also morphs into the kindly concierge at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where Edward takes Vivian on their first, uh, date. Mr. Anderson is likable, flexible and hard-working, which is not quite enough to keep us from wincing every time Happy Man starts to sing about dreams again. He doesn’t have to convince Vivian, who has dreams from the outset, though she’s not quite sure what they are. Others require more persuasion, including the money-minded Edward and Vivian’s roommate, Kit (the inimitable Orfeh, the cast’s loudest member), a fellow hooker who finally remembers she always wanted to be a cop. The score’s many, country-tinged power ballads bring to mind B-sides of Top 40 hits from the 1980s, the era in which Mr. Adams became a rock star. And they are often delivered with a straight-to-the-audience, note-holding “American Idol” earnestness. Mostly, Ms. Barks conducts herself like a peppy, tomboyish cutup from a sitcom. She often doesn’t seem entirely at ease, but her discomfort is nothing compared to Mr. Karl’s. This fine musical performer, a knockout in the recent “Groundhog Day,” often looks as if he would rather be anywhere but here, especially when he has to sing internal monologues about how free Vivian makes Edward feel. This playbill was signed by the original broadway cast-Samantha Barks, Andy Karl, Eric Anderson, Jason Danieley, Ezra Knight, Allison Blackwell, Tommy Bracco, Brian Calì, Robby Clater, Jessica Crouch, Nico DeJesus, Anna Eilinsfeld, Matt Farcher, Lauren Lim Jackson, Renée Marino Ellyn Marie Marsh, Jillian Mueller, Jake Odmark, Jennifer Sanchez, Matthew Stocke, Alex Michael Stoll, Alan Wiggins, Jesse Wildman Foster, Darius Wright and Orfeh.
Price: 99.99 USD
Location: New York, New York
End Time: 2024-12-13T20:05:24.000Z
Shipping Cost: 5 USD
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Original/Reproduction: Original
